When listening to a mix CD, the question often arises: what makes a good DJ? Is it the songs he plays? Surely not, because anyone can slam one barely beat-matched track into another. Perhaps it's the programming, the continuous flow of each track into the next, so that one compliments the other instead of disruption. Or, maybe it's his mixing itself. Can he beat-match? Can he do it well, sustaining it for long periods of time? Are his transitions so seamless that you would find yourself so lost in thought that the entrance of the next song misses you completely? If that's the case, what makes a DJ great? It's all of these qualities combined, and add to that, the ability to keep the listener's attention, to add something novel, to keep the listener always waiting eagerly for the next trick in his set. Not many DJs are able to do this. Morgan is one of the few that does.
First off, I should warn you: this isn't your average fluffy pop dance music. This is, simply put, hard. It bangs. It drives. It moves you. It doesn't just say, "dance," but says, "dance, dammit." It's energy poured into music, frenetic, frantic, all in one. The first track makes that point. After an intro out of the movie, Dune (like its predecessors, Sentinel, Decepticon, and Dark NRG, it has a theme from a popular movie and sprinkles samples from the movie in various spots), the track winds straight into the break of "Disco Cop" and lets you hear every bit, every sample of the song crystal-clearly. And just when you get over the rush of hearing the break, you can hear the strains of the sample of the next song, "Time For House." It is like this throughout the CD - a nonstop adrenaline rush as one track transforms into another, setting a relentless pace, one that never drops or falters. The CD leans more towards the hard house edge, but still has quite a bit of NRG-type goodies in its bag. One of the best moments of the CD is its 1-2-3 punch of "Wait a Second," "Such a Feeling," and "Non-Stop Energy." This is a quintessential example of great programming and how the flow of a track into the next is supposed to go. Each song is equally hard and pounding, yet their transitions don't offset each other. They don't clash. They are perfectly seamless. The exit out of "Such a Feeling" is also a great example of Morgan's mixing abilities. He draws the track out, displaying his ability at keeping two records going for lengthy periods, something he's known for doing live. What makes Morgan's mix so good is that he keeps the listener on his toes. One expects normal mixing, and then something like "Ready 4 Dis" pops up and catches the listener off guard. In this case, it's Morgan's versatility with his mixer. The normal DJ abuses the flange effect on the DJM-600 to death, or worse yet, doesn't time it to cycle to the beat; Morgan uses a properly timed echo effect, instead. It's not something that one usually expects. And once the listener has gotten acclimatized to that, Morgan throws another trick in: he scratches. This isn't novel to HardNRG, but it's not commonplace either. And, it happens to be the first time Morgan has done it in a recorded mix. In his case, it works well. The scratching neither goes overboard nor overpowers "Back to the Funk." Altogether, the CD brings a taste of both what a live set feels like and what a studio mix should sound like. It displays his ability and his prowess as a DJ, and it gives a new listener a taste of what HardNRG sounds like. In this case, he fulfills his task well, and then some. This is truly a great CD and worth purchasing, for listeners and DJs alike, clubbers and wallflowers, casual ravers or occasional dabblers in electronica. ___________________________________________________________________ The D mailing list http://www.djdenise.com/ Check out the new forum! http://www.djdenise.com/forum/
